Day Off
by Annabel Lioncourt
Summary: Tonks is sick of work, so a certain werewolf calls in sick for her. Follows their day off to the bookshop where tonks almost got them banned from it, to the part that most of you are hoping to see. humor, minor angst but it ends well.


**Day Off**

**Summary: Tonks is getting sick of work, so her werewolf husband tells Kingsley she's sick [Moony letting someone skive work/school! Gasp!] Tonks at first thinks its all for her, but then decides he just might have an ulterior motive…**

**Rating: T for some…stuff…yeah…**

**Disclaimer: I'm not JKR, do not own anything but my laptop and am not selling this. I'm just wasting time on this nerd site [and don't feel bad I include myself as a nerd too] when I should be doing homework.**

Tonks dragged herself out of bed, sunlight not even yet streaming through the windows. She looked around in the dark, not seeing Remus anywhere in their room, or their bathroom. She pulled her robe (not one for wearing out, just her bathrobe) over her nightgown and stumbled down the stairs.

"I hate mornings."

"Why?" Lupin asked her, setting out a coffee mug, plate and silverware.

"Because I have to go—" she caught herself, knowing that one of the things that Remus wanted most was to be leaving for work right now, somehow being able to offer her more than just himself (and an at least competent person in the kitchen). "I just hate them." She poked at the waffles on her plate. She didn't have the heart to not eat, but the prospect of having to show up at work spoiled any appetite she normally would have. Work had never been this much of a chore before, but between the rise in corruption in the ministry, the fact that while she was in work she was thinking about the fact that she could be home snogging her new husband, and finally, because each day it seemed someone else found out about her marriage.

"They know, don't they?" Lupin set a cup of tea on the counter before taking a seat beside Tonks.

"They don't matter." She said with finality, the violence with which she stabbed her fork into her breakfast with showing her anger.

"What have they said?" tonks didn't reply "Dora, what have they done?"

"They didn't _do_ anything. Its what they say." She sighed, this would be an ugly argument no matter what, but really, the arugeing was worth it for the few nights when they were getting along. It was unhealthy, at least mentally unhealthy and she knew it but being away from him caused more pain than being there. "They just make stupid remarks about dens and cubs and fur and all the other…shit like that."

"I told you this would happen." She shut her eyes, bracing for the rest of his argument. His stupid three point argument. Every time they fought, it was like he was trying to write an essay—listing his reasons and examples for each, it was as if his academic mind couldn't just state things simply. "Never mind." He said quickly getting up, Tonks followed.

"did you just say what I think you did?"

"I called in sick for you. Rather, I lied to Kingsley that you were sick so would go into the files and change your work schedule. You might have to show up a little while Wednesday afternoon, but you have off today." The words _and tonight_ went unsaid, but they'd come up later and he saw no reason to mention them yet.

"Really?"

"Really." Tonks jumped up to him, kissing him full on the lips, clinging around his neck for a moment. "Let's walk into to town, I've always wanted to go look around."

"Nymph, that's a two hour walk."

"We'll apparate most of the way then. I'm sure there's a bookstore or a library or something."

"No thank you, I don't think I'm feeling up to getting kicked out of another literary establishment."

"That woman was just jealous!"

"Tonks you were behaving completely inappropriately for a place of business."

"_I _was? Was _I _making out with _myself_? I believe you meant that _we_ were behaving completely inappropriately for a place of business."

"Fine then, we'll waste the entire day here doing nothing."

"Remus you're idea of nothing happens to be much more interesting than your idea of doing something." He turned slightly red. "It's so cute how you blush like a Weasley when I refer to the bedroom."

"I do not."

"What if I said that in front of my mum?"

"She would kill me."

"…Yeah, she would." Tonks left her bathrobe unceremoniously on the couch in the living room and started up the stairs. "Don't get excited, I'm just getting a shower and getting dressed. We'll go to the bookstore, alright?"

"I said I didn't want to—"

"Too bad, cause they have that new edition of a _History of Hogwarts_—"

"Alright, we'll go." He knew she just wanted an excuse to aggravate the old woman who worked there, and to look at the sappy romance section of the shop.

Remus knew that he wasn't going to be able to get his book that day, having made kingsley think that his wife was sick, there was no way that they could be caught in a wizarding shop, but Tonks being Tonks led them both to the city instead of the nearest town to their house out in the woods to go to a book shop.

"Remus! Look at these!" Tonks pointed to a shelf of plush animals as they passed the children's book department, taking a smiling grey wolf and a smiling (and slightly cross eyed) white one. "It's us."

"That's highly disturbing."

"I'm buying them."

"Why?"

"Because it annoys you."

"You have one already." One of the things that he had found helping her move their junk from her old flat to the house, a tatty old plush wolf. "Why do you have one?"

"I had it since I was a kid. I always loved werewolves, you didn't think I married you becuase you're smart or kind did you?" he didn't say anything, just looking at her confused. "God, you can be thick. I bought it for myself a couple years ago. I figured that way I could at least say to myself I was sleeping with Remus then."

"Again, Nymph, highly disturbing."

"And now I can still say I'm sleeping with Remus." He decided that between the turn in the conversation, and her wandering eyes that she was standing much too close in the book store that seemed to have a constantly rising temperature.

"I'm going to look in history,"

"Are you ditching me?"

"No, but I know that after two minutes in the dark ages section, you'll leave me and I'll end up spending more time looking for you than for my book."

"Git." He brushed her recently morphed bangs out of her eyes.

"Save name calling for later, please." He added. Tonks smiled and clung to his arm—at least until her husband abandoned her for a rather thick and dull looking text book. She stalked away like any true Black and muttered under her breath as she looked over a row of how to books, bored.

"May I help you?" asked a twenty something worker.

"Yeah, do you have a book on how to get a smarty bookworm husband out of the books and into you?"

"Actually we do." she grinned the same kind of wicked grin that her new customer did. She took a glossy hot pink paper back off the top shelf and handed it to her. "Is he here?" the girl who's name tag read 'Ashley'

"The nerd in the tweed over in the history books." Tonks said looking across the store.

"The tall one?"

"Yeah…" tonks smiled.

"here he comes." A blonde Oxford looking lad, maybe 27 or 28 came up to them. "She's lucky." Ashley said to him.

"Er…no that's not…"

"Sorry Sir." Ashley added to the rather confused looking student.

"There's mine." Tonks said, as Lupin approached the two women.

"Found you; it's getting late, love, let's head home." Ashley looked at him with a minor bit of shock. Somehow he didn't seem to fit the part of the husband of the young woman he was leaving with. The couple noticed and while Lupin preferred no say anything Tonks just added:

"By the way, thank you for finding that book for me but I might not need it."

"Er…your welcome." Tonks clung a little more than necessary to her husband's arm as they walked out. He wasn't going to get over this anytime soon.

"would you say something?" she finally asked of him as they reached a park that was secluded enough they could apparate out of and back home without anyone noticing.

"About what? That even muggles don't approve of us?"

"Get over yourself, Remus, she didn't say we shouldn't be together, just thought we looked odd. Age and such aside—which no one cares about anyway—we still are an odd couple. Not that there's anything wrong with that, its just fact."

"I suppose I never would have thought it was you if I were to picture what my one day wife would look like."

"Would she be smarter?"

"You are intelligent."

"Prettier?" lupin sighed, apparating them both to their house before replying

"Nymphadora, now you're just compliment fishing." She smiled a little before walking in and realizing that she still had to make it through dinner. They had gotten lunch at a little café near the bookshop but one of them would still have to cook. And then clean up. And then (at least she wanted to) take another shower again before…going to bed.

Yet as if he could read her mind he said "Go get cleaned up, I'll make dinner."

"Can we just have the rest of my birthday cake for dinner?"

"Tempting, but, no." he kissed her forehead and whispered, as if afraid the house itself would overhear "I'm eager too, love, but its only five."

A few long hours later

"I'm sorry Dora."

"I'm still taking it as an insult."

"the shower's barely large enough for one—let alone both of—"

"You have an excuse for everything, don't you?"

"Yes."

"You're a git."

"I knew that."

"You know everything."

"No I don't; if I did, I'd know how to get you to accept this apology so we can get to the rest of the night."

"Fine you win." She said bitterly from across the bed

"Not yet."

"Why!" against her reluctant squirming, he took her in his arms tightly.

"I'm not making love to you when you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you, I just said you're a git."

"which I accepted."

"Alright, since when are you so funny?"

"Is that sarcasm?"

"_That_ was." She commented. Remus almost let go of her "please don't. I'm sorry."

"For what? Calling me a git, making fun of my sarcasm or getting mad because I don't want to make love to you in a shower?"

"All of them."

"Alright then."

"I'd appreciate it if we could be all cozy again. You promised for tonight—and you—" a realization came over her that she was going to use to the best of her advantage. "You needed me didn't you? you were going to go mental without me."

"What are you getting at—"

"You're just fooling with me, you're going to have me tonight no matter what, aren't you? that's why you pulled the strings so I could have off today." It was partially true; he hadn't had any decent intimate time with her in over a week—considering they had only been married for eighteen days, that was a while.

"Alright, so I wanted to have some decent time with you tonight, is that an Azkaban worthy crime?"

"No, but you making me feel like an idiot is. I'm an auror and you're a werewolf, I'd win that one in the ministry in a heartbeat." She was just joking around, but that was just too much for him, when he was in a moment where he almost forgot what he was.

"Thank you."

"I didn't mean it like—Remus, come on. Not to be grim, but you are what you are, and nothing will change that."

"Again, Nymphadora, thank you, for reminding me that I'm lower than an animal."

"Don't do that." she said "You're a human, more than that, you're mine." she grinned "And there's nothing that will change that either. You're stuck with me—forever. You're doomed, face it, love." he forced a smile and kissed her.

"I love you."

"I know." after she spoke he gave a genuine smile

"You know everything."

"That I do, except for how I can keep you mentally well." He held her tight again

"You already do, love, really…just…"

"I can't always help, can I?" he sat up in bed, and she followed. Meeting her eyes he spoke again

"Listen, alright: every moment you make everything easier for me. Nymphadora, I didn't have anything to live for this time last year, and now I have everything—Dora, you are everything and more than that for me, alright? You always are helping."

"…I'm glad I can do something." She said hugging him tightly. "Can we just forget I ever mentioned that today?"

"Why?"

"Because it's my day off, and I want to spend the entire night making love to you."

"Only you Nymph, only you…" she didn't really know what he meant by that (that only she could go from the most tender, emotional moments and then straight to the physical as if they were one and the same) but she didn't care because to her every kind of love was just simply love, be it done in an action, or just words, she was just thrilled to have his love.

**AN: sometimes I really wish I had a hot werewolf who would call in sick for me :P**


End file.
